2007 Year in review

What a year it has been!
The inception and planning of Erinn’s Edibles began in March and after doing a ton of research I hit the streets in May. My first week was at a friend’s home during their neighborhood garage sale and then I moved to the Westside Market, where I continued selling every Saturday, except for one, until the end of July.

The time at the Westside Market was a great learning experience for me. With the market being so small I was able to work out all the kinks and prefect my systems. I was also able to complete the process of getting my churches kitchen licensed by the state and move all of my baking work into the church. The downside of the Westside Market was that it was not very profitable. I am not sure if the neighborhood just cannot support a market or if the market was too new without enough marketing, but by the end of July I knew I needed to look into a different venue.

The first weekend in August I made the move over to the Byron Center farmers market and completely sold out with an hour to go. I knew then, that was the right move. Over the next several weeks I continued to increase my volume levels and continued to almost sell out every week. On top of that the people at the market were so nice and friendly I actually enjoyed my time there. Plus I cherished all my friends to stopped by to visit. It was so encouraging to see a familiar face in the crowd and loved the little surprises like hot chocolate on a chilly autumn morning. With the high amounts of product to sell, the longer it took for me to bake everything, so before long it felt liked I was living at church, I was there Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and sometimes I had to go back on Saturdays. One week when I had lost the electricity at my house I seriously considered sleeping at church. I did enjoyed it when people stopped by when I was there, but it did get me a bit off rhythm.

While the farmers market season was extremely successful for me, I was so happy for it to come to an end. I was completely exhausted by the packed schedule I was keeping, working at my day job full time and then baking 20-25 hours each week. I had intended on taking my goods to some local coffee shops to see if I could pick up some contract, but due some family medical issues that took place 4 days after the final market Saturday, I was not able to follow through with those plans.

Once those issues were taken care of it was almost the holiday’s and I decided to launch some Christmas specials which included the candy I have made and given away for the past 15 years or so. I thought they would make nice Christmas gifts for others to give away and they proved to be a great seller! My Christmas orders not only surpassed my expectations, but blew them away. It was a great success! Which brings me up to now.

Erinn’s Edibles first calendar year of business was a great success. Going into this endeavor I had certain goals I wanted to achieve, admittedly these goals were not overly ambitious, but instead what I needed. I more then met all of my objectives and can say this year was profitable. I am not sure what happens next – I am always accepting special orders (hint hint) via email and looking to explore other options.